Life

W e d n e s d a y , J u l y 2 7 t h , 2 0 1 6

When I was first hired at Starbucks, I was able to grab a free drink after my interview. I kid you not I said, “Can I try that pink/red tea drink that everyone likes?”; my manager laughed.

But after spending a summer working at Starbs, I learned a thing or two about the “pink/red tea drink”. As a former Starbucks partner, (fun fact, they are called partners, not employees) I wanted to share my at-home recipe for their infamous passion tea lemonade!

Step 1: The basics. You will need a container of Simply Lemonade, along with a tin of Tazo Passion Tea. Starbucks sweetens their standard passion tea lemonade with pumps of liquid sugar, but I only use lemonade at home! I find that the lemonade is sweet enough, but if you don’t you can always add a bit more sweetener to this recipe.

Step 2: Boil water (enough to fill half of the pitcher you are using). Once boiled, pour into a stainless steel bowl.

Step 3: Use 3-4 teabags and allow them to steep for 5-10 minutes.

Step 4: Add a large scoop of ice to your brewed tea to cool it! Once cool, pour into the pitcher.

Step 5: Fill the rest of your pitcher with lemonade.

Simple, right?! This saves me money in the summer (when my passion tea cravings are at an all time high 😉 ). I also love that you can sweeten the recipe to your liking by adding more/less lemonade or adding sweetener!

Do you love passion tea lemonade? Let me know your thoughts if you try out this at-home recipe!

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F r i d a y , J u n e 1 7 t h , 2 0 1 6

Recently, Jenn and I took a day to do some cactus shopping. I knew I wanted a moon cactus, and finally found one at Lowes! After flipping through Pinterest, I found some inspo for painting the pot, and replanting it. Here’s the breakdown of this little DIY project.

I didn’t use anything special to paint the pot, just regularly acrylic paint that I bought from Joann Fabrics.

I first painted the pot white, then used an angled brush to paint a little black scallop detail.

Ta-da! Nothing crazy, but I am so happy with my new little cactus – it now resides on my nightstand. Jenn is creating an entire cactus shelving unit, which is going to be so cute too!

I have been dying to share my room with you all! It’s essentially my sanctuary, and since I still live at home, it’s my little corner of the house. It’s also important to have your bedroom reflect yourself, and I personally love to be surrounded by cool grey and blue tones. One thing that is vital to a bedroom is the bed. The color, texture, or print in your comforter sets the mood for an entire room.

Something else to note – I make my bed every, single, day (well.. almost). Coming home to a made bed makes all the difference – there’s nothing like pulling back a well tucked comforter at the end of a long day. Aubrey also likes to rip up my sheets, so if there are protected by my comforter I save some money on repurchasing sheet sets.

I also didn’t realize it until I organized this post, but every piece of art on my walls I have created myself. Painting is something I LOVE to do, but don’t always have tons of time for. There’s also little DIY’s and cute random TJ Maxx and boutique shop finds around my room. Because of this, my room is constantly evolving – decorating is never fully complete, and I personally enjoy seeking out little pieces to add or change! A few trinkets are from Africa as well, I love knowing that they’re unique items picked up from my favorite trip.

Thanks for stopping by loves!

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T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 6 t h , 2 0 1 6

So today I wanted to share our first DIY! For Christmas, my friend requested a quote from r.m. drake, soI immediately began searching for a quote and a frame. I found this one at T.J. Maxx, but wasn’t in love with the two wood tones it had. Above is the frame after I began to sand it down with a Wood Finishing Pad that my dad had in the garage.

I used the above three paint colors to achieve a distressed look, starting with white to wash out the interior wood tone.

Once the white paint had been brushed on throughout the frame, I then started to paint the darker tones over the whole frame.

Once the layers of dark paint had dried, I sanded sections of the paint off to let the white show through and start to give it more of a distressed look.

Ta-dah! Here’s the final product. It’s not a drastic difference, since I wanted to keep it neutral and make the frame one uniform tone. However, anyone could use these steps to create a distressed look with more colorful paint colors! Hope this is a quick and helpful little pictorial on how to recreate a wooden frame!